💡Water Bottle Wars: The Rise of the Stanley Quencher

      DTC Newsletter - September 25, 2024

      Hello - it is Wednesday and we are going to take a different approach from our last newsletter and perform a deeper and more data-driven dive on a single topic: the meteoric rise of the Stanley Quencher and subsequent market evolution.

      We also have an update on a Biden Administration policy change aimed at hampering manufacturing in China, as well as the introduction of our new Exploding Trends and Companies newsletter series.

      -John Fisher, Ben Chapdelaine, Josh Wilson

      RETAIL DEEP-DIVE

      MAIN STORY: The Water Bottle Wars

      In 2018, a popular shopping blog, The Buy Guide, highlighted an obscure and uninspiring product - the Stanley Quencher. The product had been around for years, mainly marketed toward outdoorsy men. But the Quencher underperformed relative to the rest of Stanley's assortment, so the company decided to discontinue it. The Buy Guide, however, loved it.

      "We tried and tried to connect with someone at Stanley, but had no luck...We KNEW this product was special and that we happened to find an audience for it that they hadn’t considered - women."

      The Buy Guide: The Story of The Cup

      Stanley executives followed their recommendation and brought back the Quencher. The product exploded on social media with the help of the Buy Guide, and Stanley sales skyrocketed. Moreover, the market for reusable water bottles - which had only seen marginal growth in decades - exploded to $4.5B, and the Stanley Quencher became something of a cultural icon.

      However, this success didn't go unnoticed, as up-and-coming brands began competing on features, price, and target audience.

      In this first-of-its-kind report in our newsletter series, we examine the key dynamics and competitive levers in the Reusable Water Bottle market. We analyze five of the top brands: Stanley, Owala, Hydrojug, BrüMate, and CorkCicle. We study their product features, price points, innovations, and resulting sales performance to better understand what sets each of them a part in what is a commodity market.

      See the data. -JF, BC, JW

      POLICY UPDATE

      Biden Administration is taking aim at Shein, Temu, and other retailers linked to China.

      The U.S. is proposing changes to the de minimis rule, which currently allows goods valued under $800 to enter the country without duties or taxes. This rule has been a key strategy for companies like Shein and Temu to keep their prices ultra-low.

      Under the current de minimis threshold, these companies can ship products directly from China in small packages, avoiding import taxes and duties.

This not only keeps their prices competitive but also undercuts domestic retailers who face higher import costs.

      Biden’s proposal aims to close this loophole by lowering the de minimis threshold and tightening the rules, especially for companies with ties to non-market economies like China. This could mean a significant shift in pricing strategies for Shein, Temu, and similar retailers.

      See CNBC report here. -JW

      EXPLODING TRENDS

      The 5 biggest trends, each week

      We recently launched two cutting-edge newsletters: ExplodingTrends & ExplodingCompanies.

      ExplodingTrends uses the Particl database to deliver the top 5 fastest growing trends pulled from Products, Categories, and Keywords - directly to your inbox.

      ExplodingCompanies also uses the Particl database to highlight five fast-growing retail startups in an effort to speculate on who will be the next e-commerce trendsetters.

      Subscribe here. -BC

      PARTICL ON X

      Follow ParticlHQ for top stories

      We've recently taken X by storm. Follow the ParticlHQ account for top-stories pulled by our team every day.

      If you have any feedback on today's style of newsletter, please respond to this email; we read each reply individually.

      Written by John Fisher, Ben Chapdelaine, and Josh Wilson

      Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

  You are receiving this email because you opted-in to receive email from the list DTC Newsletter from Particl

  Particl, 11456 Temple Dr Suite 100, South Jordan, UT 84095

  Unsubscribe

💡Water Bottle Wars: The Rise of the Stanley Quencher

Subscribe for the Latest Updates

AI Powered, Real-time Data for Modern Retail Businesses.